Well, I’d like to read a small section from Amelia Bedelia Unleashed. This is where she wants a dog and actually this book — this is book number two. It actually grew out of the first book. I was writing Amelia Bedelia Means Business and I think it was like about at the third chapter I was writing about her and a woman who loves her dog and she later starts a dog walking service.
And this chapter went from 8 pages to 16 to 30 pages and finally I realized this is a whole new book. And I sort of — I sort of performed a chapterectomy. I took this chapter out and I left enough to work in Means Business and then I took and then grew it into this book, Amelia Bedelia Unleashed where she works for this dog walking service. She wants a dog now and so she uses a dog walking service as a way to test drive a bunch of different dogs to figure out which dog is going to be right for her.
And so this is right after she has gone walking a bunch of dogs and she’s so tired after the experience that she has to call her father to come pick her and her bike up. She’s just exhausted. So…
When her dad arrived, he put her bike in the trunk while she reclined her seat, let out an enormous yawn, and shut her eyes. “You’re exhausted,” said her dad. “Are you dog tired or just tired of dogs?” “Both,” she said. “Today was a real drag.” “You didn’t have fun?” he said. “Oh, I had fun,” said Amelia Bedelia, “but with ten dogs, I was the one who got walked. They dragged me here, they dragged me there. It was just one long drag.” Amelia Bedelia’s dad laughed. “Ten dogs,” he said, “What kind were they?”
Amelia Bedelia counted them off. “There was a Belgian Sheepdog, an Irish Setter, a German Shepherd, Scottish Terrier, a Norwegian Elkhound, an Italian Hound, and a Welsh Corgi.” “What a group,” said her dad. “It sounds like you took most of Europe for a walk.” “Wait a second,” said Amelia Bedelia, “I forgot all about the Dane.” “Wow,” said her father, “a great Dane?” “He was good,” said Amelia Bedelia, “not really great. He misbehaves a lot and Diana says he eats as much as a lion cub.”
“Did you have any trouble besides the dragging?” said her dad. “A little,” said Amelia Bedelia. “I let two dogs play and I lost sight of them for a couple of minutes.” “Well, did you spot them?” he asked. “One was already spotted,” said Amelia Bedelia. “That was the Dalmatian.” “What was the other one?” asked her dad. “A Labrador,” said Amelia Bedelia. “Retriever?” asked her dad. “Yep,” said Amelia Bedelia, “I found her.”
And so that was a way that, you know, again, the variety of dog names, it’s just a way to get, again, a face-to-face misunderstanding between people. Her father doesn’t try to correct her or anything. They just sort of motor on and finally they get home. It’s just — it’s just a fun way of playing with the names of dogs that we hear all the time.
